2010 celebrates the 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto and marks the 1st anniversary of Venetia Burney Phair, the most influential 11 year-old in the history of astronomy who, died on 30th April 2009, aged 90. Venetia was a young schoolgirl living in Oxford, England in 1930, when she came up with the name Pluto for the newly discovered Planet X. As a tribute to Venetia’s extraordinary contribution and to its young discoverer, the American Clyde Tombaugh, Space Renaissance Education Chapter, in collaboration with Father Films, announce the launch of Naming X, a global online competition, to find the next influential student or school group with the creative and scientific talent to suggest a suitable name for a minor planet and a reason why. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/905/

OSA Foundation To Donate Hundreds Of Telescopes To Milwaukee Students Through Galileoscope Challenge

The OSA Foundation announced recently the launch of a new program to donate hundreds of telescopes to students in the Milwaukee area, while educating them about science, optics and astronomy. The OSA Foundation, through a partnership with the Institute for the Transformation of Learning and a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, will donate nearly 500 "Galileoscopes" as well as books and DVDs about Galileo Galilei and astronomy to six local middle, junior high and high schools as part of its program called the Galileoscope Challenge. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/903/

Sidewalk Marathon in Erding, Germany

On Friday 24 April 2010, the town of Erding near Munich in Germany began a star party with an exhibition with the local fine art club on the topic "the Tower of Babel". Two hours later, EurAstro's President Jean-Luc Dighaye kicked off an incredible Astronomy Marathon. At around 16:00, his Coronado started duty in the middle of the "Schranneplatz", initiating a queue of people waiting in the line which disappeared only eight hours later as the exhausted organisers collapsed under the demand! http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/901/

International Astronautical Congress registration now open

Online registration, hotel accommodation, social events and tours booking forms for the 61st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is now open. The early registration rate (and payment) deadline is 30 June 2010. The Congress will take place in Prague between 27 September and 1 October 2010. It is believed that the IAC will help to increase general awareness about space related capacities and plans of countries in this part of Europe and, at the same time, it will motivate and stimulate activity of new space generation there. The theme is “Space for Human benefit and exploration" . All relevant information can be found here: http://www.iac2010.cz/en/welcome

The Sky of our Grandparents

The project "The Sky of our Grandparents", coordinated by the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and the Institute for the Study of Traditional Literature (IELT) of the New University of Lisbon (Portugal), collected personal testimonies, stories, legends, songs, poetry and proverbs for a year and revisited the endangered sky, the bright sky that our ancestors saw, and the knowledge of astronomy that passed down from generation to generation. The Amazonian Museum in Brazil was an active partner of this project. Germano Afonso, an ethno astronomer working at the Amazonian Museum with students of several ethnic origins, has discovered amazing facts about the astronomical knowledge of the different populations of Amazonia. The film "Our Ancestors' Sky" unveils us some of these facts. http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/multimedia/videos/detail/our_ancectors_sky/

Join in the Hubble Pop Culture Contest!

In honour of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 20th anniversary, the European Space Agency (ESA) is proud to present the ESA “Hubble Pop Culture” competition — a free competition that calls for everyone who loves Hubble to find examples of it in popular culture. Have you seen a Hubble image on the cover of a CD? Has Hubble been used as inspiration for art? Let us know and you could win great prizes! http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/898/